Logan Place

Logan Place provides efficiency apartments and 24 hour on-site support for 30 adults who had been persistently homeless. Logan Place is a model for a real solution to the problem of homelessness in our communities.

What Housing First Means

The goal of Logan Place is to provide people who have lived in shelters and on the streets for much of their lives with a chance for a permanent and safe living situation that will support their stability and independence and offer them a chance for a productive and fulfilling future.

Logan Place: The First Five Years

Logan Place was once unknown. . . . That was the first year. The second year it became our house. The third year it became home. The fourth year it became homey. Today drawings and paintings by tenants hang. Who knows what the fifth year is going to bring.

Footnote: Try as you may you’ll not find 29 better housemates.

-Rose Strout
From Logan Place News, Spring 2009

For the first time in 20 years, on March 24, 2005, the day we opened Logan Place, the number of people using the city overnight shelter at Oxford Street decreased. Before that night the Oxford Street Shelter had exceeded its capacity 70% of the time for a year.

In addition, we have documented the economic savings to the community when chronically homeless individuals have their own home. The number of police calls, emergency room visits, medical transports, and jail stays for tenants of Logan Place plummeted, compared to the year before they moved into their apartments. One tenant was responsible for 42 police calls in the seven months prior to moving into Logan Place. In the seven months after he moved in, there was only one call.

Personal Successes

Even more important are the personal successes at Logan Place. Individuals who literally lived on the streets for years are now living safe dignified lives in their own homes. Over a third of the tenants at Logan Place have reconnected with family members, some for the first time in over a decade.

We expected some of the tenants to work on sobriety. We expected some to seek and receive mental health services. We expected to have tenants interested in work. All of that has happened. And more.

More Than Affordable Housing

Logan Place not only provides affordable housing but also helps people live independently, build community, and become good neighbors. It offers:

independent living in fully equipped efficiency units

community space on each floor for group and recreational activities

on-site laundry for tenants

convenient access to public transportation

Avesta Housing built, owns, and maintains the building; and Preble Street provides 24-hour support services to ensure that people who are making the transition to permanent independent housing will succeed. Staff:

monitor the building

assist in developing and enhancing life skills

help with activities such as household management, shopping, use of transportation, and meal preparation

facilitate access to community resources such as health clinics, and mental health and substance abuse services

Logan Place is based on simple principles—everybody deserves housing and the support necessary to maintain it—and the results are profound and far-reaching.